Truckstop winners go to Sweden
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By David Wilcox
THREE representatives from British truckstops and three drivers will be visiting Sweden early next month on a factfinding trip to see how Swedish lorry drivers eat and sleep while on the road.
The trip is a prize for their success in the first Commercial Motor/Scania/Routiers Truckstop competition, designed to find the best truckstop in Britain or abroad.
Winner of the eating-only class is Whitwood Truck Stop on the Whitwood Freight Centre, Castleford, West Yorkshire.
It is located at Junction 31 of the M62 and opened for business in August. Its official opening was last Friday.
Although it was not allowed to erect a sign on the M62 (despite an approach to Transport Minister Lynda Chalker), its list of regulars is growing, rewarding the efforts of proprietors Stuart Wardell and John Mulheir to create a warm and friendly welcome in the spotlessly-clean 84-seat cafeteria.
During an incognito visit by the judges the food was highly rated and the inclusion of a separate shower and toilet for female lorry drivers also won praise.
There is a 3.5 acre lorry park for overnight parking and there is a tv lounge for the sleepercab drivers; there are plans for a bar and diesel pumps.
The class for truckstops providing eating and overnight accommodation was a closerun contest but the judges finally chose Tayside Truckstop on the northern side of the Dundee ring road. It opened last October and added six bedrooms earlier this year.
The judges placed it first primarily on the strength of its very high standard lounge, bar and restaurant. It also boasts a wide range of facilities — shop, derv, electric points for overnight fridge vans and night repair facilities at the Daf and ERF agency on the same site.
Brothers Philip and Donald Ridgway who own the Tayside Truckstop and the adjoining commercial garage run their own haulage company and clearly they know what is reqUired for an award-winning' truckstop.
There was a surprise winner in the class for the best Continental truckstop — the Sealink ferry St Anselm on the DoverCalais crossing.
It qualified because it is outside British waters for a substantial part of the 80 minute crossing.
More specifically, it was the ro-ro drivers' lounge on the ferry that was entered and the clean, well-laid-out dining area set aside for lorry and coach drivers was adjudged to be a worthy winner.
One of the drivers' lounge attendants, Tony Castle, will represent Sealink (UK) on the trip to Sweden and he will be joined by one of the 143 drivers who nominated the St Anselm in the competition. Likewise, the representatives from the Whitwood and Tayside truckstops will each be accompanied by one of the 100-plus drivers who nominated them.
As the guests of Scania in Sweden, the party will visit several Swedish truckstops whose standards are reckoned to be among the very highest. We hope that some of the best features will filter back to the UK.
• A full report of the visit and a closer look at the three winning truckstops will follow in CM's Christmas special on December 22.